Celebrate Valentine's Day with rock music's 5 most romantic frontmen

It's been said that most men don't give nearly enough when it comes to celebrating Valentine's Day. And there's no argument from this fella: call it laziness, or absent-mindedly perpetuating harmful stereotypes, but the "Day of Love" is quite often a mere afterthought. When the truth is, even if you set aside valid complaints regarding the holiday's over-commercialization, active displays like this are a cornerstone of any solid relationship.

So, men and mascs everywhere, it's time we do better. But how exactly do we go from V-Day duds to romance studs? Why the same way you'd address any other deficit in life: find a hero in pop culture and idolize the heck out of them! In this instance, we've assembled five rock 'n' roll frontmen to look upon with great reverence. These are the men who bring a different vibe to the stage, and who show us how to be passionate, thoughtful, unwaveringly organic and generally endearing. These are the rock gods that deserve such lofty adulation, and even through their imperfections, they show dudes how to treat love like a sold out gig at Madison Square Garden.

Happy Valentine's Day, dudes. Make next year the one that truly counts for all those that you love and adore.

Nick Cave

In some ways, Nick Cave is both the most and least likely entrant on this list. From a visual perspective, his penchant for theatricality, paired with those dark, ill-fitting suits, make him a lizard mixed with Crispin Glover, with all the passion of an early Elvis Presley. Yet Cave's carnal presence is often undercut by his music's intellectual heft and generally dark undertones. (The best Cave lyric is from Grinderman's "Palaces of Montezuma," in which he croons, "The spinal cord of JFK/ wrapped in Marilyn Monroe’s negligee.") Of course, this is also the man who once sang, "I move, you move, I laugh/you laugh, I’m sawn in half and the stars are splashed across the ceiling," which equally boggles the mind and inflames the heart. That's because Cave is a man of extremes, and in the pursuit of both the profane and sacred, the transcendent and the terrifying, we can trust in him to be raw, poignant and utterly unrelenting in his efforts. There's so much to love about a man who trawls the scum looking for new truths, and we admire him for every trip back to the surface with some fresh new insight into man's truest, weirdest desires. If that's not real love, then what is at this point?

NOFX’s Fat Mike

Unlike Mr. Cave, NOFX's own Fat Mike doesn't exactly scream "sex appeal" in basically anything he says or does on stage. Instead, he's just as likely to punch fans or fellow performers, or, and we kid you not about this, play a practical joke involving urine. That image of "buffoon punk rock clown" has served Mike and the boys for years — it's the singular image they've used to continually feel fresh and exciting no matter the state of punk rock on any given day. Still, to call Fat Mike just another schlub misses out on a few key things. He's written a suite of queer-positive songs, including 1992's undeniable "Liza and Louise." He's also never hid his love of BDSM, and that frankness and level of engagement with fans is part of why Fat Mike is such an important voice for true outsider communities. And he's always just operated continuously above the board, including in dealing with NOFX's farewell in late 2024, which feels important in a rock star you can mostly trust. So, yeah, clown shoes and dick jokes aren't everyone's cup of tea, but Fat Mike makes sincerity, honesty and integrity sexy by living his life how he wants and having the courage to let us connect with this genuinely compelling personality. I'd like to see a member of BTS pull off any of that.

Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl

Dave Grohl is your older brother. (Or, depending on the year you were born, a father figure or very cool uncle.) By that we mean that he's mostly known for a kind of middle of the road romanticism. Yes, he wrote one of alt rock's most triumphant love songs in "Everlong," but you wouldn't exactly put him up there with the likes of Marvin Gaye or Frank Sinatra. Still, that may be Grohl's greatest strength: he is the living, breathing embodiment of dad rock-level romance. He's not so involved and overly sentimental that the Foo Fighters couldn't headline, say, a baseball-themed music festival. Yet it's clear that Grohl is also this deeply passionate writer and performer who uses his raw power to reach out to people on stage and meet them at some truly vulnerable places. (See almost any live performance of "Rope.") What you get with Grohl, then, is someone who feels accessible and still compelling, an everyman rock lothario who talks about love less as a dramatic abstract but the kind of big thing you grapple with over a lifetime. Sure, he's had his own issues with fidelity as of late, but even if we can't ever excuse cheating, Grohl manages to make personal art by exploring and reacting to his own shortcomings. Thanks, Grohl, for showing all the dummies how to make rock 'n' roll about all kinds of love.

TV on the Radio’s Tunde Adebimpe

Admittedly, Tunde Adebimpe isn't quite as well known as others on this list (even as TV on the Radio have been indie darlings for years). Regardless, there's something extra magical about what Adebimpe does on the stage. Despite the markedly cerebral approach of his band, Adebimpe brings a sensuality and intimacy to TV on the Radio. Just listen to 2011's "Nine Types of Light," which is this soulful exploration of love and romance for the modern age. It's an aspect that is extra pronounced on stage, and TV on the Radio gigs feel massively engaging as Adebimpe draws in the crowd even when the songs aren't romantic whatsoever. It goes deeper still as Adebimpe maintains interests in acting (he's great alongside Kristen Wiig in "Nasty Baby") and visual art (see his exhibit "A Warm Weather Ghost"). Those aren't just mere hobbies but more ways in which Adebimpe can grab people with his inner magnetism, his poignant poetry, his expert, unassuming choreography and his general power as a unifier of people. You don't have to be super famous to be this dang good, and Adebimpe moves audiences through the use of various tools and creative approaches.

The Strokes’ Julian Casablancas

The Strokes frontman feels like the sole name on this list where his mere inclusion is a tad conditional. When he and the band were just starting out with 2001's "Is This It," it was quite easy to see Casablancas as some indie rock romance god. (If you didn't hear "Barely Legal" for the first time and try to compare it to your own romantic existence, then you clearly weren't very old back then.) Since that iconic album, though, Casablancas has evolved into something else entirely: a purer indie rock weirdo. It's best manifested and represented in his solo work with The Voidz: retro-tinged indie-electronica made for like-minded weirdos, and with nary a bit of the scrappy romanticism that defined Casablancas' early efforts. Is just such a sustained pivot totally a bad thing? Maybe — the younger Casablancas soared as this Upper East Side poet. Still, his transformation into "dance-punk Iggy Pop" carries with it a new level of charm and other creative opportunities, including songs that are about less concrete ideas/concepts but retain that maximum energy and humanity. He's a love-dealing robo-rock deity of another breed, and Casablancas makes magic because he's worn so many hats. This latest "version" is one that makes people swoon and sing for a number of reasons.